Description
AŽD Praha, as a leading supplier of signalling systems and solutions to railway undertakings and railway infrastructure owners and managers, is highly motivated to provide its customers the most advanced systems and technologies, all developed and produced in its labs and factories. Besides the railway market, AŽD Praha serves also to road telematics, traffic control, property and personal security users and operators and, last but not least, manufactures and supplies also telecoms devices and systems. To achieve this goal, a vast range of research and development facilities are allocated in a number of AŽD Praha divisions and subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Serbia and Bulgaria. These resources and staff are backed by a number of scientists in cooperating research institutes and universities in these countries. Expert knowledge of our staff is not limited just to signalling, control and telecommunications, but it spans a number of scientific disciplines from theory of safety codes, information and software theories used in safety critical systems, further to reliability theory, radio modulation theory, radio signal propagation and coverage analysis, EGNSS safety and dependability analyses, not to mention all. In addition to the hundreds of privately funded research and innovation projects completed in the course of our evolution to the leading railway signalling company, our R&D divisions have participated in many national and international research projects, mostly funded by national or European bodies, like the European Space Agency, European Commission, Czech Ministry of Transport, Technology Agency of the Czech Republic or Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. Thanks to our knowledge base, R&I capabilities and reputation AŽD Praha became an Associated member of the Shift2Rail JU in 2015. Since 2021 AŽD is a Founding Member of Europe’s Rail JU, even being a member of its Governing Board. Europe’s Rail is the only EU’s major programme and joint undertaking for railway research and innovation activities. Besides that, AŽD Praha experts are regular and active contributors to the research and standardization activities in several international institutions, associations and consortiums – UNIFE/UNISIG, CENELEC, ACRI, CAT, etc.
Competences and capabilities
The majority of projects are focused to the complete applied research, innovation and development, validation and assessment of products which are then introduced into a production cycle. The state-of-the-art sample and serial production infrastructure allows us to manufacture prototypes ready to be tested and validated in our own company labs as well as in accredited labs anywhere in the world. Also projects with an innovation potential, not ready for market uptake, get interest and room in the company R&D labs or polygons, even at our own 2 rail test tracks in northern and eastern Bohemia.
Major Space Projects & References
- „Train Integrated Safety Satellite System (3InSat) Demonstration Project”, funded by ESA in the course of the IAP Programme (project Nr. 4000105788/12NL/ NR), 2012-2015
- „NGTC - Next Generation Train Control”, funded by EC in the course of FP7 (project Nr. 605402), 2013- 2016,
- „RegioSAT – Enhancing railway safety on regional lines using satellite systems”, funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (project Nr.TA01030124), 2014- 2016
- „STARS - Satellite Technology for Advanced Railway Signalling” funded by EC in the H2020-Galileo-2015-1 call (project Nr. 687414), 2016-2018
- „X2Rail-2 - Enhancing railway signalling systems based on train satellite positioning, on-board safe train integrity, …” a Shift2Rail member’s project funded by EC in the H2020-S2RJU-2017 call (project Nr. 777465), 2017-2020
- “CArrier Phase RESiliencE (CAPRESE) – “Techniques Supporting Resilience for High-Integrity Train Control Applications”, funded by ESA in the course of the NAVISP Programme (project Nr. NAVISP-EL1-017), 2018-2020
- “TrainLOC – Conditions for deploying train locators based on GNSS systems on the railway network”, funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (project Nr. TIRSMD707), 2019-2022.
- „X2Rail-5 - Start-up activities for Advanced Signalling and Automation Systems” a Shift2Rail member’s project funded by EC in the H2020-S2RJU-2020 call (project Nr. 101014520), 2020-2023
Space Related Equipment, Labs & Certificates
- GNSS SIS stationary and mobile test sets
- GNSS RF signal analyzers and recorders
- Measurement and test rail vehicle and train set
- Regional rail test tracks > 50 km
- Inertial systems test bed
- Odometry systems test bed
- Climatic and EMC test chamber